Huddersfield Giants have a “lot of reasons to play well” against Catalans Dragons in the Ladbrokes Challenge Cup.
That’s the message from new head coach Simon Woolford as he takes charge of the famous old club for the first time.
Woolford, who expects skipper Leroy Cudjoe to make his first appearance in nine months after knee surgery, says the incentives for individuals and the club are massive.
The Rugby Football League have announced the semi-finals of the competition will be played as a double-header at the Macron Stadium, Bolton, on Sunday August 5.
And Woolford is determined to make sure the Claret and Gold do their business properly at the John Smith’s Stadium to ensure they are heading up the M61 and not the resurgent Catalans Dragons.
“We have done plenty of work on the Catalans Dragons and they are similar to us in that they have started pretty poorly and then been able to string a couple of wins together, so they are improving,” said Woolford.
“Josh Drinkwater is there now and we think Kenny Edwards might play, so we know they might add a bit there, so we have talked about things and where we might counter-act those guys.
“We have spent more time, though, on ourselves and making sure we keep improving.
“We’ve been reviewing our game and reviewing our training and making sure we fix up the errors both with the ball and when we are defending.
“We have been working hard to eradicate the errors in our game and, while we have put a lot of focus on the Catalans, it has been a lot of focus on what we are doing as well.”
The Giants are looking for a fifth straight win with just one change to their 19 – Sam Wood replacing knee-injury victim Ukuma Ta’ai, who will be sidelined for at least six weeks.
“It’s nice for my first game to be at home and to be in the Challenge Cup,” explained Woolford.
“I know quite a few people who have played over here and coached over here and I know exactly how important the Challenge Cup is.
“It’s nice to have a quarter-final at home, with a semi-final place up for grabs, and we have a lot of reasons to play well.
“We have trained well, prepared properly and I would expect the guys to put in a pretty good performance.
“There are no excuses.
“We have a squad who are able to perform well over the next couple of months and, if we keep at it the way we have been doing, I think we will see some pretty good footy out of this team from now until the end of the year.”
Woolford is keen to underline that fact in the Cup – where he accepts Catalans are a test with quality players in their squad – but ultimately he wants improvement to show in the Super League standings.
“First and foremost we want to be in that top eight – we don’t want to have to play in the Super 8s at the end of the season,” he said.
“We want to stay where we are, climb up a bit and then have those games after the split in the competition to see what is possible.
“First and foremost, we have to get our own back yard in order, train well, play well and if we do that, I am pretty confident we will get some wins along the way.”
